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Driver charged over three incidents of cyclists rammed in road rage attacks; Councillor demands mandatory helmets and 'road tax'; Movistar pro's wounds from Vuelta barbed wire crash; Sir Chris Hoy gets a cargo bike; Paralympic gold + more on the live blog

It's Friday and it's a bank holiday weekend - what more could you want? Dan Alexander has the honour of keeping you entertained with the final live blog of the week...
Fri, Aug 27, 2021 09:04
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Driver charged over three incidents of cyclists rammed in road rage attacks; Councillor demands mandatory helmets and 'road tax'; Movistar pro's wounds from Vuelta barbed wire crash; Sir Chris Hoy gets a cargo bike; Paralympic gold + more on the live blogAdelaide man charged road rage ramming (screenshot 9 News)
27 August 2021, 15:53
27 August 2021, 15:51
As good as it gets in the UK?

Name the road, bonus points if you've been up it...may as well chuck it on the bucket list if you haven't... 

27 August 2021, 14:06
Driver charged over three incidents of cyclists rammed in road rage attacks in Adelaide
Adelaide man charged road rage ramming (screenshot 9 News)

Nine Australia reports a man has been charged after allegedly ramming cyclists in three seperate road rage attacks in Adelaide. He is also alleged to have lied about his car being stolen.

Police say the white Ford Fairmount was travelling on Lady Gowrie Drive, North Haven at around 6.30am when the driver steered at a cyclist, knocking them to the ground. The rider suffered bruises and grazing.

A short while later a second cyclist was then forced off the road into the verge before a third cyclist was hit by the driver of the same vehicle, throwing him off the significantly damaged bike.  

Police arrested a 25-year-old man who has since been charged with endangering life, leaving the scene of an accident, property damage and making a false report to police as investigators dispute the claim his car was stolen at the time of the offences. The suspect is due to appear in court next month.

27 August 2021, 13:38
Friday fail
27 August 2021, 13:05
Local Bike Shop Day tomorrow: support your local store
Bike shop interior (CC BY-ND 2.0 jun.skywalker:Flickr).jpg

Tomorrow is Local Bike Shop Day, an annual celebration to raise awareness of services offered by independent cycle shops across the country and the role they've played in supporting cyclists over the past 18 months. 

New shop The Bicycle Rooms in Stratford upon Avon is launching this Saturday and will offer free safety inspections all day.

Elsewhere Cycle Solutions Uplands is joined by Gower Gelato, who will be handing out Gelato pots free to customers who spend in store or book their bike in for a service. G64 Cycles in Glasgow is offering 3 for 2 on bike maintenance lubricants/cleaning as well as free lights and a cable lock to any bikes sold on the day.

27 August 2021, 12:59
Here's the full story as promised earlier...
27 August 2021, 12:43
Cycling in Wales up 68 per cent during lockdown, new government report reveals - motor traffic levels dropped to lowest level since 90s
Gravel Fondo Cymru wales

Cycling in Wales increased by more than 68 per cent during 2020 as motorised traffic on Welsh roads fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, according to new Welsh Government research. Cyclists covered more than 320 million vehicle-kilometres (vkm) on Welsh roads last year, compared to 190m vkm the year before.

The trend follows a spike in cycling activity elsewhere in the UK during the Covid lockdown and emergence from restrictions. Interestingly the the number of vehicle-kilometres clocked up by cyclists in Great Britain in 2020 was the highest since 1962.

By contrast, car use in Wales fell by 26.3 per cent during lockdown, with motorists driving over 7.5 billion fewer vkm than in 2019. However, the volume of motorised traffic in Wales was still equivalent to 7,760km (4,823 miles) per person.

Greg Wilson of Quotezone.co.uk commented on the numbers: "It’s extraordinary that lockdown saw cycling increase to levels not seen since 1962, a time when less than 40% of households owned a car."

27 August 2021, 11:26
More Paralympic success in the velodrome

Kadeena Cox followed up on yesterday's success to add the C4-5 500m time trial to ParalympicGB's medal tally in Tokyo. The 30-year-old defended her title from Rio, beating Canadian world champion Kate O'Brien's time by 0.411 seconds.

"I knew I was going to have to do something special, and that if I put everything together that me and my coach had worked on, it would be amazing," she told the BBC. "I executed a race that was near-perfect - I'm so happy."

27 August 2021, 10:52
27 August 2021, 10:41
Wout van Aert, Mark Cavendish and now world champ Julian Alaphilippe confirmed for Tour of Britain

If Wout van Aert and Mark Cavendish wasn't already enough, Deceuninck-Quick-Step have confirmed their world champion and all round entertainer Julian Alaphilippe is coming to the Tour of Britain as part of his prep for the defence of his rainbow jersey. Some of you may remember Alaphilippe won the race back in 2018, winning the stage into Bristol also.

The race will be the French darling's final outing in the rainbow jersey, but who'd bet against him defending his crown in Flanders next month? "I am really looking forward to racing the Tour of Britain, which will be my last in the rainbow jersey, that I have been so proud to wear for the last 12 months," Alaphilippe said.

"I had a successful race in Britain the last time I was there in 2018, and I know it will be a hard-fought race this time. It will be the perfect race for me to take on, ahead of the world championships. We come here with a strong team and will look to race hard, as we always do."

27 August 2021, 10:28
Road (race) rage
27 August 2021, 09:57
Ribble Cycles sponsors grassroots British CX team
Garden Shed UK - Ribble - Verge Cyclocross team (press release)

Ribble Cycles has taken on sponsorship of Garden Shed UK - Ribble - Verge Sport CX team as they look to build upon previous success in the upcoming season. Full disclosure, when I first looked at this press release I thought Ribble had sponsored an actual garden shed. Not my sharpest moment. There was me thinking Clive from Telford would be nipping out to get his lawnmower from a Ribble branded shed. 

Anyway, Garden Shed UK - Ribble - Verge Sports the cyclocross team was founded in 2019 by Tom Dussek and Jenson Young to offer support and racing opportunities to U23, Junior and Youth riders. Key rider Oli Akers, winner at Koppenbergcross and Youth National Series enters his third season with the team.

27 August 2021, 09:42
"The school run is about to get a whole lot more fun": Sir Chris Hoy joins team cargo bike

Top comment from someone questioning Chris' abilities to ride a cargo bike on British roads. Yeah, the six-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champ is going to struggle...

Perhaps they were from Bath Conservatives...who on Wednesday said you can't use a cargo bike anywhere hilly, only to get shut down by a cargo bike courier who's been delivering up Bath's steep hills for years...

And while we're on the subject of Tories talking nonsense about 'steep hills', you might have seen the news this morning that a Camden cycle lane has been voted through despite a Conservative claim the three per cent incline was too severe.

27 August 2021, 10:53
27 August 2021, 09:10
"Don't try to go against a barbed wire fence": Movistar domestique Nelson Oliveira shares pictures of war wounds after crashing into a barbed wire fence during stage 12 of the Vuelta

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Poor Nelson Oliveria ended up in the barbed wire on stage 12 and finished the stage 14 minutes down on the day's winner Magnus Cort. The Portuguese rider on the Movistar team rolled across the line bloodied and with little of his team shorts left around his legs. 

The veteran campaigner reassured concerned fans on Instagram: "Don't try to go against a barbed wire net - I'm fine and nothing serious, tomorrow will be another day - thank you all for your affection"

Shades of Mitch Docker at the Tour of Flanders and Johnny Hoogerland at the Tour de France in 2011. Many other riders, including Ineos' Adam Yates and Dylan van Baarle were involved. Max Schachmann has abandoned the race and Alpecin-Fenix Grand Tour debutant Tobias Bayer didn't finish the stage.

27 August 2021, 08:57
Peloton slashes prices as gyms reopening and less need for home exercise sees sales growth slow
peloton bike plus.PNG

Home trainer maker Peloton will slash the price of its flagship model in response to slow sales off the back of gyms reopening and reduced demand for home workouts. The US firm will cut the price by around 20 per cent to $1,495 from Thursday, which will apply to all its markets in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany.

More to follow shortly...

27 August 2021, 07:51
Councillor demands mandatory helmets and 'road tax'...accuses cyclists of 'splitting hairs' when educated on the fact there is no such thing

Let's start Friday with some local politics silliness. Cllr Judy Butt from Poole's hot take stemmed from the proposed Highway Code changes that will see cyclists given priority at junctions when travelling straight ahead. It will also establish a hierarchy of road users, with those with the potential to cause the most danger to others deemed to have greater responsibility.

"HELMETS MUST BE MANDATORY!!" is Judy's price for the changes and she couldn't help herself having a sly point about the "law must mirror their responsibility on the road and other tax playing (sic) motorists safety". Yes, sometimes it does seem like we play road tax when talking about cycling online.

In fairness to Cllr Butt she was happy to engage on the subject (if you can give a local politician credit for explaining controversial their opinions?) 

 And here it comes...

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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69 comments

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to IanMK | 3 years ago
2 likes

IanMK wrote:

I would think going forward, in the short term,  there is a stong argument for getting rid of VED entirely and just collecting an emmisions tax through fuel duty. As you say, though, road pricing will come in ultimately.

I've always favoured that approach as polution is directly related to fuel use, and not to claimed emmisisons, or vehicle age or veihicle engine capacity, also removes the admin of collecting it.

There is a case that the switch to electric vehicles by 2050 will leave a hole in government revenue, which might need to be addressed by some sort of vehicle weight x mileage calculation. In addition to any fuel duty.

and if they want to extend this to bikes, based on the weight calc, I would happily pay 0.5% of what I pay for my car for the bike (per mile)

Avatar
Hirsute replied to wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
4 likes

There's loads of variables for the future of vehicle based taxes.

Switch to active travel, Autonomous vehicles, ebikes, ecargo bikes, rollout of fast fibre negating vehicle trips, lack of parking spaces, wider access to hourly car hire schemes.

Rendel has written about how he has swapped a car for an ebike. My local council are looking at ecargo bike hire (due to the increase in housing in the town centre and lack of parking/car ownership).

If I look at my own car usage, the swap to hiring a car at 10 minutes notice is looking more attractive as the car sits on the drive for a lot of time.

Though quite how you change the mindset if aspiring to car ownership is a very hard one to solve.

 

 

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
9 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

 Is the mandatory helmet like some mark of shame? Or is it more like the Nazis forcing Jews/Gays to bear some visible badge?

That comparison's both silly and highly offensive. You can resist mandatory helmets (as I do) but comparing it to Nazi treatment of Jews and gays isn't on. At all.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Rendel Harris | 3 years ago
9 likes

Rendel Harris wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

 Is the mandatory helmet like some mark of shame? Or is it more like the Nazis forcing Jews/Gays to bear some visible badge?

That comparison's both silly and highly offensive. You can resist mandatory helmets (as I do) but comparing it to Nazi treatment of Jews and gays isn't on. At all.

Not intending to cause offense (except to Jude Butt and like-minded supporters) but I was drawing the comparison to one specific aspect of the Nazi administration whereby the outgroup is made to wear a visible badge. If helmets are mandated then you would face fines and possibly imprisonment for refusing to wear one which is definitely less barbaric than the Nazis' treatment of outgroups.

My point is that trying to divide people up into different groups (cyclists, motorists) is generally used by politicians to divert people away from the real issues and promote a divided populace in order to promote some particular agenda.

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
3 likes

Thinking about it, isn't that how the Australians did it?

Their Govt legally mandated a safe passing distance but in return they got mandatory helmets, requirement to carry photo ID, and fines/penalties for cycling offences at about 2-3 times more than those for motoring offences...

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
3 likes

brooksby wrote:

Thinking about it, isn't that how the Australians did it?

Their Govt legally mandated a safe passing distance but in return they got mandatory helmets, requirement to carry photo ID, and fines/penalties for cycling offences at about 2-3 times more than those for motoring offences...

Yes, and then strangely enough the poorest demographics got targetted the most by the police. Probably a coincidence that the poorest demographic also tends to be aboriginal.

Avatar
Hirsute | 3 years ago
7 likes

As a local councillor she has displayed an abject ignorance of the services provided by local councils, the method of funding and the usage of local roads by differing types of transport.

As to helmets, perhaps she can explain how wearing a helmet makes someone more lawabiding or protects car drivers and passengers.

I take it pedestrians will be wearing helmets as they benefit from the revised highway code and are also injured and killed by car drivers even on the pavement.

I guess there should be a pedestrian tax too.

 

Avatar
brooksby | 3 years ago
3 likes

Looking at the twitter feed I found this gem from her as part of the 'conversation':

Quote:

l wish cyclists to wear helmets to protect their skulls in an accident and l am a cyclist hater (sic), firstly am a cyclist and l hate no one, it's a pointless energy sapping exercise.

And of course she's a Conservative!

Quote:

Judy was first elected in May 1999 and has worked in most areas of council services. She is Chairman of the Licensing Committee. Judy has held many positions in the past whilst on Poole Borough Council, including Deputy Group Leader and Cabinet Member for Engagement and Participation.

Positions held on BCP Council:

  • Chairman of the Licensing Committee
  • Member of the Licensing Sub-Committee
  • Charter Trustee of Poole

Outside Bodies:

  • Council Representative on the Creekmoor Community Association
  • Council Representative on the Creekmoor Youth Centre Management Committee
  • Council Representative on the Hillbourne/Waterloo Youth Centre Management Committee

Avatar
PRSboy replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
2 likes

To be fair I think you are misinterpreting that comment.  She is responding to a comment that she is a cyclist hater, and saying she hates no one as this is a pointless energy sapping exercise.

My first reading of it was that she said cycling was a pointless energy sapping exercise!

That said, there is a lot of other nonsense she spouts in the thread that needs fact-checking, such as "many cyclists are a danger on the roads".

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